A Comprehensive Phylogenetic and Bioinformatics Survey of Lectins in the Fungal Kingdom.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Lebreton A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8227253 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Microorganisms are diverse in their genome sequences and subsequently in their encoded metabolic pathways, which enabled them to adapt to numerous environmental conditions. They produce thousands of small molecules, many of which are volatiles in nature and play important roles in signaling in intra- and inter-species to kingdom and domain interactions, survival, or virulence. Many of these compounds have been studied, characterized, and organized in the mVOC 2.0 database. However, such dataset has not been investigated comprehensively in terms of its phylogeny to determine key volatile markers for certain taxa. It was hypothesized that some of the volatiles described in the mVOC 2.0 database could function as a phylogenetic signal since their production is conserved among certain taxa within the microbial evolutionary tree. Our meta-analysis revealed that some volatiles were produced by a large number of bacteria but not in fungal genera such as dimethyl disulfide, acetic acid, 2-nonanone, dimethyl trisulfide, 2-undecanone, isovaleric acid, 2-tridecanone, propanoic acid, and indole (common bacterial compounds). In contrast, 1-octen-3-ol, 3-octanone, and 2-pentylfuran (common fungal compounds) were produced primarily by fungal genera. Such chemical information was further confirmed by investigating genomic data of publicly available databases revealing that bacteria or fungi harbor gene families involved in these volatiles' biosynthesis. Our phylogenetic signal testing identified 61 volatiles with a significant phylogenetic signal as demonstrated by phylogenetic D statistic P-value < 0.05. Thirty-three volatiles were phylogenetically conserved in the bacterial domain (e.g., cyclocitral) compared to 17 volatiles phylogenetically conserved in the fungal kingdom (e.g., aristolochene), whereas 11 volatiles were phylogenetically conserved in genera from both bacteria and fungi (e.g., geosmin). These volatiles belong to different chemical classes such as heterocyclic compounds, long-chain fatty acids, sesquiterpenoids, and aromatics. The performed approaches serve as a starting point to investigate less explored volatiles with potential roles in signaling, antimicrobial therapy, or diagnostics.
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Project description:This experiment probed for the presence of known Arabidopsis and rice microRNAs in total RNA samples derived from species representative of the major groups of land plants: Eudicots (Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana), monocots (Oryza satica, Triticum aestivum), magnoliids (Liriodendron tulipifera), gymnosperms (Pinus resinosa), ferns (Ceratopteris thalictroides), lycopods (Selaginella uncinata), and mosses (Polytrichum juniperinum). In most cases two technical or biological replicates were performed.
2005-05-01 | E-MEXP-293 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway is a three-tier signaling cascade that transmits cellular information from the plasma membrane to the cytoplasm where it triggers downstream responses. The MAPKs represent the last step in this cascade and are activated when both tyrosine and threonine residues in a conserved TxY motif are phosphorylated by MAPK kinases, which in turn are themselves activated by phosphorylation by MAPK kinase kinases. To understand the molecular evolution of MAPKs in the plant kingdom, we systematically conducted a Hidden-Markov-Model based screen to identify MAPKs in 13 completely sequenced plant genomes. In this analysis, we included green algae, bryophytes, lycophytes, and several mono- and eudicotyledonous species covering >800 million years of evolution. The phylogenetic relationships of the 204 identified MAPKs based on Bayesian inference facilitated the retraction of the sequence of emergence of the four major clades that are characterized by the presence of a TDY or TEY-A/TEY-B/TEY-C type kinase activation loop. We present evidence that after the split of TDY- and TEY-type MAPKs, initially the TEY-C clade emerged. This was followed by the TEY-B clade in early land plants until the TEY-A clade finally emerged in flowering plants. In addition to these well characterized clades, we identified another highly conserved clade of 45 MAPK-likes, members of which were previously described as Mak-homologous kinases. In agreement with their essential functions, molecular population genetic analysis of MAPK genes in Arabidopsis thaliana accessions reveal that purifying selection drove the evolution of the MAPK family, implying strong functional constraints on MAPK genes. Closely related MAPKs most likely subfunctionalized, a process in which differential transcriptional regulation of duplicates may be involved.
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Project description:We present a novel method to measure the local GC-content bias in genomes and a survey of published fungal species. The method, enacted as "OcculterCut" (https://sourceforge.net/projects/occultercut, last accessed April 30, 2016), identified species containing distinct AT-rich regions. In most fungal taxa, AT-rich regions are a signature of repeat-induced point mutation (RIP), which targets repetitive DNA and decreases GC-content though the conversion of cytosine to thymine bases. RIP has in turn been identified as a driver of fungal genome evolution, as RIP mutations can also occur in single-copy genes neighboring repeat-rich regions. Over time RIP perpetuates "two speeds" of gene evolution in the GC-equilibrated and AT-rich regions of fungal genomes. In this study, genomes showing evidence of this process are found to be common, particularly among the Pezizomycotina. Further analysis highlighted differences in amino acid composition and putative functions of genes from these regions, supporting the hypothesis that these regions play an important role in fungal evolution. OcculterCut can also be used to identify genes undergoing RIP-assisted diversifying selection, such as small, secreted effector proteins that mediate host-microbe disease interactions.
| S-EPMC4943192 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundLectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are involved in fundamental intra- and extracellular biological processes. They occur ubiquitously in nature and are especially abundant in plants and fungi. It has been well established that certain higher fungi produce lectins in their fruiting bodies and/or sclerotia as a part of their natural resistance against free-living fungivorous nematodes and other pests. Despite relatively high diversity of the glycan structures in nature, many of the glycans targeted by fungal lectins are conserved among organisms of the same taxon and sometimes even among different taxa. Such conservation of glycans between free-living and parasitic nematodes is providing us with a useful tool for discovery of novel chemotherapeutic and vaccine targets. In our study, a subset of fungal lectins emanating from toxicity screens on Caenorhabditis elegans was tested for their potential to inhibit larval development of Haemonchus contortus.MethodsThe effect of Coprinopsis cinerea lectins - CCL2, CGL2, CGL3; Aleuria aurantia lectin - AAL; Marasmius oreades agglutinin - MOA; and Laccaria bicolor lectin - Lb-Tec2, on cultivated Haemonchus contortus larval stages was investigated using a larval development test (LDT). To validate the results of the toxicity assay and determine lectin binding capacity to the nematode digestive tract, biotinylated versions of lectins were fed to pre-infective larval stages of H. contortus and visualized by fluorescent microscopy. Lectin histochemistry on fixed adult worms was performed to investigate the presence and localisation of lectin binding sites in the disease-relevant developmental stage.ResultsUsing an improved larval development test we found that four of the six tested lectins: AAL, CCL2, MOA and CGL2, exhibited a dose-dependent toxicity in LDT, as measured by the number of larvae developing to the L3 stage. In the case of AAL, CGL2 and MOA lectin, doses as low as 5 μg/ml caused >95 % inhibition of larval development while 40 μg/ml were needed to achieve the same inhibition by CCL2 lectin. MOA was the only lectin tested that caused larval death while other toxic lectins had larvistatic effect manifesting as L1 growth arrest. Using lectin histochemistry we demonstrate that of all lectins tested, only the four toxic ones displayed binding to the larvae's gut and likewise were found to interact with glycans localized to the gastrodermal tissue of adults.ConclusionThe results of our study suggest a correlation between the presence of target glycans of lectins in the digestive tract and the lectin-mediated toxicity in Haemonchus contortus. We demonstrate that binding to the structurally conserved glycan structures found in H. contortus gastrodermal tissue by the set of fungal lectins has detrimental effect on larval development. Some of these glycan structures might represent antigens which are not exposed to the host immune system (hidden antigens) and thus have a potential for vaccine or drug development. Nematotoxic fungal lectins prove to be a useful tool to identify such targets in parasitic nematodes.
| S-EPMC4539729 | biostudies-literature
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, noncoding, smallRNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level during plant development, growth and seed germination. Among all medicinal plants, Moringa oleifera is one of the most useful trees for which, despite its diffusion, no information about its miRNAs and their respective target genes is available. In this research, we report results obtained from a high-throughput sequencing analysis performed with the Illumina platform. A total of 31,290,964 raw reads were produced from M. oleifera seed smallRNA library. First, we found 99 conserved miRNAs and 43 novel ones that we partially validated by qRT- PCR. Second, by comparing their expression abundances with those of other common plants, we identified 20 conserved M. oleifera miRNAs. For both these results an in silico analysis allowed us to predict some of their targets which in turn allowed us to link them to a wide range of physiological processes. Based on qRT-PCR expression analyses, we reported the expression profile of some selected conserved miRNAs in different M. oleifera tissues (roots, stems and leafs). We compared the most conserved miRNAs found in Moringa with those of other edible plants, such as Olea europaea and Brassica rapa. Furthermore, by taking advantage of a recently developed web- application based on an algorithm that compares plants and mammalian miRNAs, we identify a few possible plant miRNAs with functional homologies with mammalian ones. We used the 20 most abundant M. oleifera miRNAs to conduct a preliminary analysis to investigate potential cross-kingdom gene regulation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of M. oleifera miRNAs that uses high-throughput sequencing analysis. Our analysis increases the amount of information about plant miRNAs currently available and it can help us understanding the molecular mechanism of this medical plant.
2015-07-01 | GSE70423 | GEO
Project description:BackgroundErgosterol has been considered the "fungal sterol" for almost 125 years; however, additional sterol data superimposed on a recent molecular phylogeny of kingdom Fungi reveals a different and more complex situation.Methodology/principal findingsThe interpretation of sterol distribution data in a modern phylogenetic context indicates that there is a clear trend from cholesterol and other Delta(5) sterols in the earliest diverging fungal species to ergosterol in later diverging fungi. There are, however, deviations from this pattern in certain clades. Sterols of the diverse zoosporic and zygosporic forms exhibit structural diversity with cholesterol and 24-ethyl -Delta(5) sterols in zoosporic taxa, and 24-methyl sterols in zygosporic fungi. For example, each of the three monophyletic lineages of zygosporic fungi has distinctive major sterols, ergosterol in Mucorales, 22-dihydroergosterol in Dimargaritales, Harpellales, and Kickxellales (DHK clade), and 24-methyl cholesterol in Entomophthorales. Other departures from ergosterol as the dominant sterol include: 24-ethyl cholesterol in Glomeromycota, 24-ethyl cholest-7-enol and 24-ethyl-cholesta-7,24(28)-dienol in rust fungi, brassicasterol in Taphrinales and hypogeous pezizalean species, and cholesterol in Pneumocystis.Conclusions/significanceFive dominant end products of sterol biosynthesis (cholesterol, ergosterol, 24-methyl cholesterol, 24-ethyl cholesterol, brassicasterol), and intermediates in the formation of 24-ethyl cholesterol, are major sterols in 175 species of Fungi. Although most fungi in the most speciose clades have ergosterol as a major sterol, sterols are more varied than currently understood, and their distribution supports certain clades of Fungi in current fungal phylogenies. In addition to the intellectual importance of understanding evolution of sterol synthesis in fungi, there is practical importance because certain antifungal drugs (e.g., azoles) target reactions in the synthesis of ergosterol. These findings also invalidate use of ergosterol as an indicator of biomass of certain fungal taxa (e.g., Glomeromycota). Data from this study are available from the Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life (AFTOL) Structural and Biochemical Database: http://aftol.umn.edu.
| S-EPMC2878339 | biostudies-literature
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, noncoding, smallRNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level during plant development, growth and seed germination. Among all medicinal plants, Moringa oleifera is one of the most useful trees for which, despite its diffusion, no information about its miRNAs and their respective target genes is available. In this research, we report results obtained from a high-throughput sequencing analysis performed with the Illumina platform. A total of 31,290,964 raw reads were produced from M. oleifera seed smallRNA library. First, we found 99 conserved miRNAs and 43 novel ones that we partially validated by qRT- PCR. Second, by comparing their expression abundances with those of other common plants, we identified 20 conserved M. oleifera miRNAs. For both these results an in silico analysis allowed us to predict some of their targets which in turn allowed us to link them to a wide range of physiological processes. Based on qRT-PCR expression analyses, we reported the expression profile of some selected conserved miRNAs in different M. oleifera tissues (roots, stems and leafs). We compared the most conserved miRNAs found in Moringa with those of other edible plants, such as Olea europaea and Brassica rapa. Furthermore, by taking advantage of a recently developed web- application based on an algorithm that compares plants and mammalian miRNAs, we identify a few possible plant miRNAs with functional homologies with mammalian ones. We used the 20 most abundant M. oleifera miRNAs to conduct a preliminary analysis to investigate potential cross-kingdom gene regulation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of M. oleifera miRNAs that uses high-throughput sequencing analysis. Our analysis increases the amount of information about plant miRNAs currently available and it can help us understanding the molecular mechanism of this medical plant. microRNA profile of M. oleifera seed, germinated on paper soaked in sterile water.
2015-07-01 | E-GEOD-70423 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:All life forms have evolved to respond appropriately to various environmental and internal cues. In the animal kingdom, the prototypical regulator class of such cellular responses is the Rel homology domain proteins including nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB). Fungi, the close relatives of animals, have also evolved with their own NF-κB-like regulators called velvet family proteins to govern cellular and chemical development. Here, we conducted a detailed investigation of the taxonomic broad presence of velvet proteins. We observed that velvet proteins are widely distributed in the fungal kingdom. Moreover, we have identified and characterized 21 major velvet clades in fungi. We have further revealed that the highly conserved velvet domain is composed of three distinct motifs and acts as an evolutionarily independent domain, which can be shuffled with various functional domains. Such rearrangements of the velvet domain have resulted in the functional and type diversity of the present velvet regulators. Importantly, our in-deep analyses of the primary and 3D structures of the various velvet domains showed that the fungal velvet domains can be divided into two major clans: the VelB and the VosA clans. The 3D structure comparisons revealed a close similarity of the velvet domain with many other eukaryotic DNA-binding proteins, including those of the Rel, Runt, and signal transducer and activator of transcription families, sharing a common β-sandwich fold. Altogether, this study improves our understanding of velvet regulators in the fungal kingdom.IMPORTANCEFungi are the relatives of animals in Opisthokonta and closely associated with human life by interactive ways such as pathogenicity, food, and secondary metabolites including beneficial ones like penicillin and harmful ones like the carcinogenic aflatoxins. Similar to animals, fungi have also evolved with NF-κB-like velvet family regulators. The velvet proteins constitute a large protein family of fungal transcription factors sharing a common velvet domain and play a key role in coordinating fungal secondary metabolism, developmental and differentiation processes. Our current understanding on velvet regulators is mostly from Ascomycota fungi; however, they remain largely unknown outside Ascomycota. Therefore, this study performed a taxonomic broad investigation of velvet proteins across the fungal kingdom and conducted a detailed analysis on velvet distribution, structure, diversity, and evolution. The results provide a holistic view of velvet regulatory system in the fungal kingdom.
| S-EPMC10845976 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAt present, there is not a widely accepted consensus view regarding the phylogenetic structure of kingdom Fungi although two major phyla, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, are clearly delineated. Regarding the lower fungi, Zygomycota and Chytridiomycota, a variety of proposals have been advanced. Microsporidia may or may not be fungi; the Glomales (vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi) may or may not constitute a fifth fungal phylum, and the loss of the flagellum may have occurred either once or multiple times during fungal evolution. All of these issues are capable of being resolved by a molecular phylogenetic analysis which achieves strong statistical support for major branches. To date, no fungal phylogeny based upon molecular characters has satisfied this criterion.ResultsUsing the translated amino acid sequences of the RPB1 and RPB2 genes, we have inferred a fungal phylogeny that consists largely of well-supported monophyletic phyla. Our major results, each with significant statistical support, are: (1) Microsporidia are sister to kingdom Fungi and are not members of Zygomycota; that is, Microsporidia and fungi originated from a common ancestor. (2) Chytridiomycota, the only fungal phylum having a developmental stage with a flagellum, is paraphyletic and is the basal lineage. (3) Zygomycota is monophyletic based upon sampling of Trichomycetes, Zygomycetes, and Glomales. (4) Zygomycota, Basidiomycota, and Ascomycota form a monophyletic group separate from Chytridiomycota. (5) Basidiomycota and Ascomycota are monophyletic sister groups.ConclusionIn general, this paper highlights the evolutionary position and significance of the lower fungi (Zygomycota and Chytridiomycota). Our results suggest that loss of the flagellum happened only once during early stages of fungal evolution; consequently, the majority of fungi, unlike plants and animals, are nonflagellated. The phylogeny we infer from gene sequences is the first one that is congruent with the widely accepted morphology-based classification of Fungi. We find that, contrary to what has been published elsewhere, the four morphologically defined phyla (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Zygomycota and Chytridiomycota) do not overlap with one another. Microsporidia are not included within kingdom Fungi; rather they are a sister-group to the Fungi. Our study demonstrates the applicability of protein sequences from large, slowly-evolving genes to the derivation of well-resolved and highly supported phylogenies across long evolutionary distances.
| S-EPMC1599754 | biostudies-literature